Peterborough 'is best place to invest' in property

Peterborough is the best place in England to invest in rental property, according to the haart chain of estate agents.

It asked all its branch managers to complete a spreadsheet with typical sales and lettings prices in their area. From this, it found that the annual returns on a typical one, two and three-bedroom property in Peterborough are higher than anywhere else, including London.

In Peterborough, a typical one-bed home rents out at £495 and is worth £68,000. A two-bedroom home rents at £525 a month and is worth £70,000. A three-bedroom home can command rent of £695 and is worth £125,000.

It means that a buy-to-let investor purchasing a one-bedroom apartment in Peterborough could expect a yield of 8.7% per annum, and a two-bedroom apartment would generate a yield of 9.0% per annum. A three-bedroom house would generate a slightly more modest 6.7% per annum.

The East of England as a whole currently offers the best rental yields of all the English regions in which haart operates, closely followed by the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and then surprisingly London.

However, London remains one of the most popular areas of England in which to invest with yields of 5% to 7% widely achievable across many areas of the capital for one, two and three-bedroom properties.

Andrew Benn, managing director of haart Residential Lettings, said: “Whilst London and the South-East has traditionally been the focal point for the majority of buy-to-let activity, we are starting to see investors focus more on other parts of the country, such as Peterborough, which thanks to rising rents, are offering prospective landlords annual returns of up to 9% – a yield they simply wouldn’t be able to achieve with other forms of mainstream investment.”